Deborah Bloomfield

The confirmation hearing for the next head of NASA took place yesterday, April 9, with Trump’s nominee, billionaire and private astronaut Jared Isaacman, answering questions from the senators in the committee. The general feeling post-hearing is that Isaacman has bold aspirations for the agency, although he was not willing to share details about plans and […]

Tectonically, Greenland sits on the North American Plate. But when it comes to history, politics, society, and culture, whether it truly “belongs” to North America is a much more complex question. The North American Plate is a tectonic plate containing most of the US, Canada, and Mexico, as well as Cuba, the Bahamas, the extreme […]

Researchers have created an H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu, vaccine that can be administered as a nasal spray. The influenza virus vector-based nasal spray vaccine platform was first developed during the COVID-19 pandemic but now may be valuable in the fight against bird flu, which is on the rise across the globe. H5N1 was […]

Cats are no strangers to weird anatomical features. They have an odd little pocket on the sides of their ears that belongs to “Henry” for some reason, and big flappy pouches that hang off their bellies – but are these pouches adorned with a belly button? The belly button, or navel, is a scar that […]

Being able to be mobile is a crucial aspect of personal independence. This is why it is important to make sure that the world is accessible to all. For many of us, it’s but a matter of time before our mobility is affected, because time catches up with everyone. There’s an easy way to see […]

Look carefully enough, and there are ghosts to be found in the forests of New Caledonia. Well, kinda – they’re actually kagus. Known by those native to the island territory as the “ghost of the forest”, these flightless birds are not only an emblem of the archipelago, but also bear a curious feature found in […]

NASA’s Perseverance rover has captured unexpected footage of one dust devil consuming another during an imaging experiment. While exploring the Witch Hazel Hill area of the Jezero Crater, the Perseverance science team took an opportunity to conduct an imaging experiment aimed at getting a better understanding of the Martian atmosphere. When it did, its cameras […]

Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4 Payments and an occasional commercial astronaut, has answered questions on his plans for the USA’s space program during a confirmation hearing for the role of NASA chief. In the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, the 42-year-old billionaire was questioned on a wide range of topics, from the Artemis […]

A major storm might not necessarily be good news, but for a group of researchers in New Zealand, bad weather has uncovered a set of 1-million-year-old footprints on a beach. Thought to have been left by a moa, an ancient, now extinct, flightless bird, the footprints have helped scientists learn more about their ecology, behavior, […]

An antiviral drug that attacks a SARS-CoV-2 virus protein protects mice against many of the most severe effects of the disease, including some that can linger on. Trials on humans are yet to begin, but the work raises hopes for progress against the ongoing legacy of the pandemic. Most countries have stopped reporting deaths from […]

Earth’s ice sheets and glaciers are melting at such a rate it’s changing the way the Earth spins, causing it to wobble off its usual axis. The effect is so severe that the rotational pole might wander up to the length of a basketball court in the coming century.  Earth’s rotational pole is the point […]

Two sightseers at Yellowstone National Park were recently jailed after breaking the law during their visit, having strayed from designated routes into some of the park’s thermal areas. According to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office, District of Wyoming, 44-year-old Angela Flaherty of Seattle, Washington, pled guilty to leaving the designated boardwalk and viewing […]

As Albert Einstein(’s secretary) used to say: “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours you think it’s only a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove for a minute you think it’s two hours. That’s relativity.” It’s pithy, and not really all that accurate, but it does get across an […]

Until the 1960s, the Aral Sea was one of the largest inland reservoirs of water in the world. Over seven decades, the lake first split into smaller lakes, until most of its original surface had completely evaporated, leaving behind a desert. The Aral Sea used to cover an area of 68,000 square kilometers (26,300 square […]

Over on Reddit, they are once again asking some pretty interesting questions. Off the back of “Why does ha make hot but hoo make cold?” and “Which way do the scales tip?” they are now asking: “What would happen if you were to lose one electron from every atom in your body?” “So, I’ve seen […]

More and more measles cases are cropping up in various US states, and with some experts now saying the outbreak in Texas could last up to 12 months, what’s the latest in this evolving situation? How many measles cases have been confirmed? As of April 3, 2025, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) […]

Shhh… do you hear it? The gentle strumming of Joel’s guitar? It can mean only one thing: The Last Of Us is back, and this time it’s more contagious than ever. The hit HBO series, inspired by the game of the same name that made Cordyceps mainstream, has teased a fleeting but powerful adaptation to […]

One of the biggest moments in human history took place 60,000 to 70,000 years ago when a portion of Homo sapiens left Africa. Despite this epoch’s huge significance, we know surprisingly little about people’s whereabouts from 70,000 to 45,000 years ago when they first set foot into the wider world. Thanks to a combination of genetic, palaeoecological, […]

The world’s oldest modified mammoth ivory pieces may have been used by children to mimic the tools of their parents, or possibly as teaching aids to help them produce utensils of their own. Discovered at the site of Medzhibozh A in western Ukraine, the extraordinary items were excavated from a layer of rock dated to […]

Asteroid 2024 YR4 is back in the spotlight. Brand new research has produced a better estimate of its size and orbit, which give it a 3.8 percent chance of hitting the Moon. Now a different group has looked at its orbital past, suggesting a likely place of origin: the middle of the main asteroid belt […]